Organizational settings for a price planning workbench

ABSTRACT

A method for defining a price planning schedule according to one or more organization settings. The method includes receiving a default organization setting for at least one article, receiving a pricing level for the default organization setting for the at least one article, receiving at least a second organization setting for the at least one article, receiving a second pricing level for the second organization setting, and generating a price planning schedule based at least in part on the first and second organization settings for the at least one article.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.60/551,221, filed Mar. 8, 2004 and entitled “Inventory Management,” andU.S. Provisional Application No. 60/563,284, filed Apr. 16, 2004 andentitled “Inventory Management,” both of which are hereby incorporatedby reference.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates generally to the field of methods andsystems for implementing price planning. More particularly, the presentinvention relates to methods and systems for implementing price planningbased upon organizational settings.

Within a retail sales organization, price planning schedules may begenerated and implemented to set prices for all of the locations withinthe organization to facilitate consistent of ease of use in pricesetting. However, different subgroups within an organization may requireunique price settings according to their unique circumstances. Forexample, one region may experience particularly stiff competition andaccordingly need to have more aggressive pricing strategies to compete.Another region may be subject to a regional tax that must beincorporated into the prices defined for articles that are being sold.According, although prices may need to be set generally for ease andconsistency, it is often necessary to generate special pricing forsubsets within an organization.

Subsets within an organization may be defined according to anorganization setting. Each organization setting may include retaillocations, groups of retail locations, or any other group according tothe particular needs and structure of the organization. Eachorganization setting may further be defined according to the pricingissues defined above. However, these pricing issues lower the ease ofimplementation and consistency for a pricing system used by theorganization.

Thus, there is a need for an automated system and method enabling usersto define organization settings to be used in a price planning system.There is further a need for such a system and method configured to allowusers to set a default pricing level for articles sold by theorganization. In addition, there is a need for a system and methodconfigured to allow the user to define unique pricing level according toorganization settings defining groups within the organization.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

One embodiment of the invention relates to a method for defining a priceplanning schedule according to one or more organization settings. Themethod includes receiving a default organization setting for at leastone article, receiving a pricing level for the default organizationsetting for the at least one article, receiving at least a secondorganization setting for the at least one article, receiving a secondpricing level for the second organization setting, and generating aprice planning schedule based at least in part on the first and secondorganization settings for the at least one article.

Another embodiment of the invention relates to a system for generating aprice planning schedule. The system includes an organization settinginterface configured to receive definitions for a plurality oforganization settings, wherein each organization setting includes anexclusive collection of articles associated with that organizationsetting and a price planning workbench configured to generate a priceplanning schedule based on the plurality of organization settings forarticles associated with each organization setting.

Yet another embodiment of the invention relates to a program product forgenerating a price planning schedule. The program product includesmachine-readable program code for causing, when executed, one or moremachines to perform the following method steps. The steps includesreceiving a default organization setting for at least one article,receiving a pricing level for the default organization setting for theat least one article, receiving at least a second organization settingfor the at least one article, receiving a second pricing level for thesecond organization setting, and generating a price planning schedulebased at least in part on the first and second organization settings forthe at least one article.

Other features and advantages of the present invention will becomeapparent to those skilled in the art from the following detaileddescription and accompanying drawings. It should be understood, however,that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicatingpreferred embodiments of the present invention, are given by way ofillustration and not limitation. Many modifications and changes withinthe scope of the present invention may be made without departing fromthe spirit thereof, and the invention includes all such modifications.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The exemplary embodiments will hereafter be described with reference tothe accompanying drawings, wherein like numerals depict like elements,and:

FIG. 1 is a general block diagram illustrating an exemplary embodimentof a retail planning system 100 for processing data related to retailoperations and planning, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2A is an organization settings definition interface 200 forgenerating pricing information for a variety of organizational levelswithin an organization, according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 2B is an organization setting detail interface illustrating detailsfor a third organization level definition, labeled “Region South,”according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3A is a site setting definition interface, configured to allow auser to generate pricing lists for one or more sites, according to anexemplary embodiment;

FIG. 3B is a site detail interface configured to allow a user toindicate that one or more particular sites within a selected site groupwill receive a unique pricing list is shown, according to an exemplaryembodiment;

FIG. 4 is an article assignment interface configured to allow a user toassign prices to articles in the defined organizational levelsassociated with that article, according to an exemplary embodiment; and

FIG. 5 is an article detail interface 700 configured to allow a user toview and modify organizational levels for a specific article, accordingto an exemplary embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS

In the following description, for the purposes of explanation, numerousspecific details are set forth in order to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present invention. It will be evident to oneskilled in the art, however, that the exemplary embodiments may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, structuresand devices are shown in diagram form in order to facilitate descriptionof the exemplary embodiments.

In at least one exemplary embodiment illustrated below, a computersystem is described which has a central processing unit (CPU) thatexecutes sequences of instructions contained in a memory. Morespecifically, execution of the sequences of instructions causes the CPUto perform steps, which are described below. The instructions may beloaded into a random access memory (RAM) for execution by the CPU from aread-only memory (ROM), a mass storage device, or some other persistentstorage. In other embodiments, multiple workstations, databases,process, or computers can be utilized. In yet other embodiments,hardwired circuitry may be used in place of, or in combination with,software instructions to implement the functions described. Thus, theembodiments described herein are not limited to any particular sourcefor the instructions executed by the computer system.

Referring now to FIG. 1, a general block diagram illustrates anexemplary embodiment of a retail planning system 100 for processing datarelated to retail operations and planning. Retail planning system 100includes a data warehouse 120 and a price planning workbench 130.

According to the exemplary embodiment, retail planning system 100 mayinclude additional components configured to manage and implement priceplanning for retail store operations. For example, retail planningsystem 100 may further include additional components such as aprocurement engine, a supply engine, a merchandise controlling engine, avaluation engine, etc. The components of retail planning system 100 mayfurther be interconnected such that information may be freely exchangedbetween the components of retail planning system 100.

Retail planning system 100 may further be associated with one or moreadditional external components such as a plurality of cash registersystems associated with retail store locations. The cash registersystems may be configured to perform a number of functions associatedwith retail store operation such as pricing implementation, inventorycontrol, data management, etc.

Retail planning system 100 may be implemented as a single system, adistributed system, or any combination thereof. Retail planning system100 may be implemented using a single computing system, a plurality ofcomputing systems, software, hardware, or any other system orcombination of systems to perform the functions described herein.Further, the components associated with system 100 may also be implementusing single or multiple systems.

Data warehouse 120 is a data repository configured to receive, sort, andprocess information related to retail operations and planning. Datawarehouse 120 may also be implemented as using a single or multiplesystems. Data warehouse 120 may further include one or more functionsassociated with it to permit a user to efficiently organize and retrievestored data. It may also contain historical data on products andservices such as past sales and prices. Data warehouse 120 is an end toend data warehouse that provides functionality for the sharing of dataand analysis tools to utilize the stored data. Preferably, datawarehouse 120 is a SAP Business Information Warehouse (SAP BW™) providedby SAP.

Price planning workbench 130 is preferably a data processing system orsoftware configured to control, display, interface with operators, orperform other operations to generate a price planning schedule. Althoughworkbench 130 is preferably implemented in an SAP based workbench,interface, and architecture, any other systems may be utilized.

Price planning workbench 130 is a data processing system configured toallow a user to perform pricing tasks (e.g., receive price planninginput data, access applicable budgeting data, generate a price planningschedule, implement the price planning schedule, etc.) as will befurther described below with reference to FIGS. 2-9. According to anexemplary embodiment, price planning workbench 130 includes a slowseller management engine 132, a manual pricing engine 134, a promotionmanagement engine 136, a user interface 138, a pricing implementationengine 140, and a reporting engine 142.

A price planning schedule may be implemented by a data structureconfigured to contain information related to one or more price changes.The price changes may include a price change by specifying a new salesprice, a percentage change based on the original or current sales price,or an absolute price change by specifying a difference from the originalor current sales price. Further, the price planning schedule may includeother information associated with the price change such as timinginformation (e.g., validity dates), quantity limits, automatic versusmanual implementation, associated articles, etc. The price planningschedule may further include one or more results based on the pricechanges included in the price planning schedule. The included one ormore results may be actual results based on the scheduled price changesand/or predicted results.

Price planning workbench 130 is generally configured to enable a user totake corresponding budget and/or other values affected by price changesinto account in planning and activating price changes to create a priceplanning schedule based on pricing input information. Exemplary valuesthat may be affected by price changes include sales and stockquantities, prices, price reductions (rebates and discounts), units,profit margins, etc.

During the creation of the price planning schedule, an initial budgetplanning value may be created representing an effect on thecorresponding budget. The initial budget planning value may be generatedwithin data warehouse 120 based on budget utilization from priorperiods, as well as the budget for the current period. Subsequently,upon activation of the price changes during defined validity dates, thecorresponding budget may be updated based upon actual sales occurringunder the price planning schedule and/or forecasted sales. During theupdating process, the initial budget planning value may be compared witha budget usage resulting from implementation of the price planningschedule and involved article quantities. Advantageously, implementing aprice planning schedule in conjunction with a corresponding budgetenables cost control for any price reductions.

According to another embodiment, a user interface may be used to displaythe results of the proposed price changes contained in the priceschedule on a number of values. For example, the user interface maydisplay the effect of a given set of price changes on a store'sprofitability. Alternatively, results may be configured to be includedin the generated price planning schedule.

Generally, engines 132, 134, and 136 communicate with price planningworkbench 130 either directly or as a downstream process. Directcommunication may include an active exchange of data during processing.Downstream processing includes processing by the engines, followed by adata transfer to workbench 130 for processing by workbench 130.Workbench 130 is configured to interface with each engine using custominformation for that engine. For example, engines 132, 134, and 136 maybe configured to generate information documents that are customized toeach particular engine and transferred to workbench 130. According to analternative embodiment, engines 132, 134 and 136 may be implemented ascomponents within price planning workbench 130.

Slow seller management engine 132 may be a system configured tocommunicate with one or more of a budgeting system, a planning system,an inventory system, or any other systems within or in communicationwith system 100. According to an exemplary embodiment, slow sellermanagement system 132 is configured to identify and recommend pricing orother strategies for products or inventory that is selling at a slowerrate than forecast. Pricing strategies may include recommended markdownsto increase sales rate. Slow seller management engine 132 is discussedin further detail below with reference to FIG. 2.

Manual pricing engine 134 may be any system or method for generatingprice planning input based on manual input received from a user.According to an exemplary embodiment, a user may utilize a userinterface associated with manual pricing engine 134 or user interface138 for price planning workbench 130 to enter one or more price changessuch as a new sales price, a percentage change based on the original orcurrent sales price, or an absolute price change by specifying adifference from the original or current sales price. The user mayfurther enter any associated information such as timing information,quantity information, store location information, etc. Manual pricingengine 134 is discussed in further detail below with reference to FIG.3.

Promotion management engine 136 may be any system or method forgenerating price planning input based upon one or more promotions. Apromotion may be a promotion associated with a particular store, a chainof stores, a particular article, a line of articles, a geographiclocation or region, etc. A promotion may include a price change, timinginformation, article information, store location, or any otherinformation related to the promotion to be implemented. Promotionmanagement engine 136 is discussed in further detail below withreference to FIG. 4.

User interface 138 may be any type of interface configured to allow auser to interact with price planning workbench 130 and/or any associatedcomponents such as slow seller management engine 132, manual pricingengine 134, and promotion management engine 136. Interface 138 may beconfigured such that each user is assigned to one or more specificbudgets, which in turn are assigned to specific articles.Advantageously, user assignments may be used to define the set ofarticles that a user is authorized to process. Interface 138 may furtherbe configured to display the status of a price planning schedule duringany stage of preparation and/or implementation. Interface 138 isdiscussed in further detail below with reference to FIG. 7.

Pricing implementation engine 140 may be any type of system or methodconfigured to receive a price planning schedule and communicate with oneor more components associated with retail planning system 100 toimplement price changes defined in the price planning schedule. Pricingimplementation engine 140 may be further configured to implementfunctions associated with the price changes such as budgets updates,inventory tracking, etc. Pricing implementation engine 140 is discussedin further detail below with reference to FIGS. 8 and 9.

Reporting engine 142 may be any type of system or method configured tooperate in conjunction with price planning workbench 130 and userinterface 138 to generate and display or otherwise provide one or moreresults based on proposed price changes. The one or more results may bepredicted and/or actual results. For example, a predicted result may bea predicted increase in sales based on the reduction in price. Suchpredicted results may be generated by price planning workbench 130 basedupon historical values, intelligence systems, simple formulas, and/orany other predictive formula or calculation. Actual results may includeresults known to occur based on the proposed price changes. For example,an actual result may include maximum sales revenue that can be generatedbased on stock levels and the revised prices.

According to alternative embodiments, price planning workbench 130 mayinclude more, fewer, or different systems than described above tofacilitate creation, processing, and maintenance of a price planningschedule. In addition, functions associated with one or more systemsdescribed above may alternatively be associated with one or morealternative systems. For example, manual pricing engine 134 may beimplemented as a component within promotion management engine 136.

Referring now to FIG. 2A, an organization settings definition interface200 for generating pricing information for a variety of organizationallevels within an organization is shown, according to an exemplaryembodiment. Generating prices for retail items within the price planningworkbench may be a two-dimensional analysis. The first dimension isrepresented by the article items. Each article may be identified by aparticular article identification number, such as an SKU number. Foreach article item, price information is established related to thatitem. The second dimension is represented by the organizational level.Exemplary organizational levels include distribution chains, regionallevels, etc. Groupings may be set according to any information knownwithin an organization. The two dimensional analysis is generated wherepricing information may be associated with an article according toorganizational levels as will be further discussed below.

Organizational setting definition interface 200 is a maintenance screenthat allows a user to define any number of organization levels and toassign a number and textual name to each organizational level.Organizational setting definition interface 200 may be implemented usingany standard type of computing device. The computing device may be alocal computing device where the organizational setting definitioninterface 200 is a graphical user interface implemented using softwareon the local computing device. Alternatively, the computing device maybe a networked or remote computing device, where the organizationalsetting definition interface 200 is a web-implemented interface.Although two possible implementations are described, those of skill inthe art will recognize that organizational setting definition interface200 may be implemented in a variety of ways using one or more computingdevices.

According to an exemplary embodiment, definition interface 200 includesfour organizational level definitions. A first organizational leveldefinition 205 is labeled with an “OS1” and “Region north.” A secondorganization level definition 210 is labeled with an “OS2” and Regioneast.” A third organization level definition 215 is labeled with an“OS3” and “Region south.” A fourth organization level definition 220 islabeled with an “OS4” and Region west.”. Although specific organizationlevels are shown and labeled, more, fewer, and/or different levels mayalternatively be used.

To add a new organizational level, a user of interface 200 may click ona “new entries” button 230, to initiate the process of creating a newlevel. Creating a new level may include assigning groupings to thelevel, labeling the level, determining whether the level will utilize adefault pricing list, etc.

For the price planning workbench, a single organization definition maybe marked as the default organization definition in a default selectioncolumn 225 of definition interface 100. Region “OS1” is currently markedas the default region as shown in FIG. 2A, column 225. A defaultorganization setting may be utilized when transferring new articles froman article hierarchy. All of the newly transferred articled are markedand treated as if they were assigned to the default organizationalsetting. Further, pricing levels from the default organizational levelmay be utilized in pricing every article through all of the organizationsetting where the article or a group the article is associated withindoes not include an exception price, discussed in further detail belowwith reference to FIG. 2B.

Using interface 200, the user may further select an organizationalsetting to be modified by click a detail button 237 after selecting anorganization level. The user may select an organization setting to bemodified by marking the organizational setting in a current selectioncolumn 235. As shown in FIG. 2A, Region 03 has been marked as thecurrent organization setting. After selecting a current organizationsetting, the user may click on “Details” button 237 to display anorganization setting detail interface 300, further described below withreference to FIG. 2.

Referring now to FIG. 2B, organization setting detail interface 300illustrating details for third organization level definition 215,labeled “Region South,” is shown, according to an exemplary embodiment.Detail interface 300 includes a detail listing 310 of price plan levelsavailable within the selected organization level definition.

A sales organization column 315 indicates the sales organization forwhich a pricing list is to be applied. A distribution chain column 320may be used to indicate a distribution chain for which a pricing list isto be applied. According to an exemplary embodiment, detail interface300 may be configured to only allow price planning for one distributionchain in a price plan. A distribution chain may be a regionaldesignation, such as a Canadian distribution chain. Accordingly, thefirst two columns of the price plan level listing 310 is fixed and isnot accessible to the user. Although only one distribution chain isdescribed, alternative embodiment may include functionality to createprice plan levels across multiple distribution chains. Further, thedefinition of a distribution chain may be modified to create a singledistribution chain from two previous distribution chains. Similarly, asingle former distribution chain may be divided into two distributionchains.

A price list column 325 may be used to indicate a price list to be usedfor a sub-region, such as a state or territory with a country. Column325 may be configured to receive the designation of the price list thatis to be used for the sub-region. For example, a shown in FIG. 2B, afirst sub-region may have prices set according to a first sub-regionpricing list 326, labeled “P1”, while a second sub-region may haveprices set according to a second sub region pricing list 327, labeled“P2”.

A site listing column 330 may be used to indicate a price list to beused for a sub-sub-region, such as a city or specific location within asub-region. Column 330 may be configured to receive the designation ofthe price list that is to be used for the site. For example, a shown inFIG. 2B, a site may have prices set according to a site pricing list331, labeled “F001”.

Each row of price plan level listing 310 represents a different levelwithin the organization for which the a price listing has been created.The exemplary price plan level listing 310 in FIG. 2A illustrates anexample where a price plan includes one general price, two differentsub-region prices, and one specific site price.

Referring again to FIG. 2A, in header area of FIG. 1, a drop down menu240 is provided which has two different selection, according to anexemplary embodiment. A first selection 241 is an organizationselection, a second selection 242 is a site group selection.

According to an exemplary embodiment, a user of interface 200 mayselection to generate pricing list according to either organizationlevels as shown and described above with reference to FIGS. 2A-2B, ormay generate pricing list according to one or more site groups.Selecting second selection 242 within interface 200 will allow a user togenerate pricing information according to one or more site groups. Wheresecond selection 242 is selected on interface 200, a site interface 400will be displayed.

Referring now to FIG. 3A, site setting definition interface 400,configured to allow a user to generate pricing lists for one or moresites is shown, according to an exemplary embodiment. At the retaillevel, a site represents the store of the retailer, or grouping ofstores, referred to herein as a site group. A site group is may beselected according to any criteria desired. For example, a site groupmay be created that includes stores that are selected based on thedemographic of a population that lives proximate to the store. The sitegroups do not need to be hierarchical according to regions, etc. andfurther may be overlapping.

Site setting definition interface 400 includes a listing 402 of createdsite definitions. A first site definition 405 is labeled with an “OS5”and “Site groups north” A second site definition 410 is labeled with an“OS6” and “Site groups east” A third site definition 415 is labeled withan “OS7” and “Site groups south” A fourth site definition 420 is labeledwith an “OS8” and “Site groups west”. Although specific sites are shownand labeled, more, fewer, and/or different sites may alternatively beused.

To add a new site, a user of interface 400 may click on a “new entries”button 430, to initiate the process of creating a new level. Creating anew level may include assigning groupings to the level, labeling thelevel, determining whether the level will utilize a default pricinglist, etc.

For the price planning workbench, a single organization definition maybe marked as the default organization definition in a default selectioncolumn 425 of definition interface 400. Site “OS5” is currently markedas the default region as shown in FIG. 3A, column 425. A default sitesetting may be utilized when transferring new articles from an articlehierarchy. All of the newly transferred articles are marked and treatedas if they were assigned to the default site setting. Further, pricinglevels from the default site may be utilized in pricing every articlethrough all of the sites where the article or a group the article isassociated with that does not include a price according to anothersetting, discussed in further detail below with reference to FIG. 4.

Using interface 400, the user may further select an site group to bemodified. The user may select an organization setting to be modified bymarking the organizational setting in a current selection column 435. Asshown in FIG. 3A, Organizational Setting “OS7” has been marked as thecurrent organization setting. After selecting a current organizationsetting, the user may click on a “Details” button 437 to display an sitedetail interface 500, further described below with reference to FIG. 7.

Referring now to FIG. 3B, a site detail interface 500 configured toallow a user to indicate that one or more particular sites within aselected site group will receive a unique pricing list is shown,according to an exemplary embodiment. Site detail interface 500 includesa site group listing 510 containing site groups that were selected incolumn 435 of interface 400. Site group listing 510 include a site groupname column 512 and a site price list column 514. For each site group inlisting 510, the user may specify that a particular site should betreated in a particular manner. For example, in site price list column512, if it is blank, price planning will be done at the site group levelaccording to the default site selected in interface 400. However, if anumber, indicative of a price list to be used for that site group, isplaced within the column 510, the site group corresponding with thatnumber will be individually planned.

Referring now to FIG. 4, an article assignment interface 600 configuredto allow a user to assign prices to articles in the definedorganizational levels associated with that article is shown, accordingto an exemplary embodiment. After the organization levels have beendefined using the organizational or site definition interfaces a usermay access details associated with either the site definition ororganization level by clicking on detail button 237 or 437, describedabove with reference to FIGS. 2B and 3B.

Interface 600 includes a header area 610 and an item area 630. Headerarea 610 is configured to display either organizational or site levels,depending on which field was selected in menu 240 of interface 200. Auser may select a organizational or site level for which articles andprices are to be assigned. Item area 630 contains articles selected bythe user. The articles may be selected from using any standard means,such as selecting based on search results, selecting from and articlehierarchy tree, etc. Accordingly, interface 600 may be configured toinclude an additional frame, not shown that includes search results oran article hierarchy tree from which users may “drag and drop” articlesinto item area 630. Assignments of article function similarlyindependent of whether a site or organizational level is being used forthe assignments.

Item area 630 includes a listing of articles including an articleidentifier column 635, a sales unit column 640, a retail price column645, and an organization level assignment column 650. The articleidentifier column 635 includes a listing of article identifiers, inparticular the article number. The sales unit column 640 includes alisting of the sales unit that the article identified by the articlenumber is associated with. According to an exemplary embodiment, thesales unit may be automatically populated and fixed, such that it cannotbe modified by a user.

Retail price column 645 includes a retail price column 645 listing theretail price associated with the listed article according to theorganization level displayed in column 650. The retail price may be setby a user allowing the user to define what prices are to be used for thearticle at each of the various organizational levels. The user may makethe assignment, i.e. article 4713, is assigned to the OS1 organizationalsetting and has a retail price of $19.99.

Although specific articles are shown associated with a singleorganizational level, it is important to note that a single article maybe associated with multiple organizational level with a unique retailprice for each organization level. To access the details for an articleand the organizational level with which it is associated an user maychose that article in a selection column 655 a click a details button660 to display an article details interface 700, described below withreference to FIG. 5.

Referring now to FIG. 5, an article detail interface 700 configured toallow a user to view and modify organizational levels for a specificarticle is shown, according to an exemplary embodiment. Article detailinterface 700 includes a header area 705 and an item detail area 710.Header are 705 is similar to header are 610, described above withreference to FIG. 4.

Item area 710 is configured to allow a user to display all of theorganizational levels or site levels and their associated price levelsfor a particular article. A user may modify one or more fields withinitem area 710 to change the retail prices associated with the articlesat each of the organizational levels or site definitions.

Organizational levels and or site levels are organization settingsconfigured to allow the user to define groups within an organization.These organizational settings may be defined according to any criteriadesired by the user. Exemplary criteria include, but are not limited to,regional hierarchies, article hierarchies, specific site locations, etc.

Although the terms “article,” “product,” “retail product,” and“inventory” are used herein to refer to the merchandise being sold, thepresent description will be applicable to the sale of any type of goodor service. In either case, the pricing for merchandise being soldand/or services may be controlled or affected by the price planningworkbench as described above.

As noted above, embodiments within the scope of the present descriptioninclude program products comprising computer-readable media for carryingor having computer-executable instructions or data structures storedthereon. Such computer-readable media can be any available media thatcan be accessed by a general purpose or special purpose computer. By wayof example, such computer-readable media can comprise RAM, ROM, EPROM,EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage orother magnetic storage devices, or any other medium which can be used tocarry or store desired program code in the form of computer-executableinstructions or data structures and which can be accessed by a generalpurpose or special purpose computer. When information is transferred orprovided over a network or another communications connection (eitherhardwired, wireless, or a combination of hardwired or wireless) to acomputer, the computer properly views the connection as acomputer-readable medium. Thus, any such connection is properly termed acomputer-readable medium. Combinations of the above are also to beincluded within the scope of computer-readable media.Computer-executable instructions comprise, for example, instructions anddata which cause a general purpose computer, special purpose computer,or special purpose processing device to perform a certain function orgroup of functions.

The invention is described in the general context of method steps, whichmay be implemented in one embodiment by a program product includingcomputer-executable instructions, such as program code, executed bycomputers in networked environments. Generally, program modules includeroutines, programs, objects, components, data structures, etc. thatperform particular tasks or implement particular abstract data types.Computer-executable instructions, associated data structures, andprogram modules represent examples of program code for executing stepsof the methods disclosed herein. The particular sequence of suchexecutable instructions or associated data structures representsexamples of corresponding acts for implementing the functions describedin such steps.

The present invention in some embodiments, may be operated in anetworked environment using logical connections to one or more remotecomputers having processors. Logical connections may include a localarea network (LAN) and a wide area network (WAN) that are presented hereby way of example and not limitation. Such networking environments arecommonplace in office-wide or enterprise-wide computer networks,intranets and the Internet. Those skilled in the art will appreciatethat such network computing environments will typically encompass manytypes of computer system configurations, including personal computers,hand-held devices, multi-processor systems, microprocessor-based orprogrammable consumer electronics, network PCs, minicomputers, mainframecomputers, and the like. The invention may also be practiced indistributed computing environments where tasks are performed by localand remote processing devices that are linked (either by hardwiredlinks, wireless links, or by a combination of hardwired or wirelesslinks) through a communications network. In a distributed computingenvironment, program modules may be located in both local and remotememory storage devices.

An exemplary system for implementing the overall system or portions ofthe invention might include a general purpose computing device in theform of a conventional computer, including a processing unit, a systemmemory, and a system bus that couples various system componentsincluding the system memory to the processing unit. The system memorymay include read only memory (ROM) and random access memory (RAM). Thecomputer may also include a magnetic hard disk drive for reading fromand writing to a magnetic hard disk, a magnetic disk drive for readingfrom or writing to a removable magnetic disk, and an optical disk drivefor reading from or writing to removable optical disk such as a CD-ROMor other optical media. The drives and their associatedcomputer-readable media provide nonvolatile storage ofcomputer-executable instructions, data structures, program modules andother data for the computer.

Software and web implementations of the present invention could beaccomplished with standard programming techniques with rule based logicand other logic to accomplish the various database searching steps,correlation steps, comparison steps and decision steps. It should alsobe noted that the word “component” as used herein and in the claims isintended to encompass implementations using one or more lines ofsoftware code, and/or hardware implementations, and/or equipment forreceiving manual inputs.

The foregoing description of embodiments of the invention has beenpresented for purposes of illustration and description. It is notintended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise formdisclosed, and modifications and variations are possible in light of theabove teachings or may be acquired from practice of the invention. Theembodiments were chosen and described in order to explain the principalsof the invention and its practical application to enable one skilled inthe art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with variousmodifications as are suited to the particular use contemplated.

1. A method for defining a price planning schedule according to one or more organization settings, comprising: receiving a default organization setting for at least one article; receiving a pricing level for the default organization setting for the at least one article; receiving at least a second organization setting for the at least one article; receiving a second pricing level for the second organization setting; and generating a price planning schedule based at least in part on the first and second organization settings for the at least one article; and wherein the second organization setting defines a subset of the first organization setting.
 2. The method of claim 1, wherein the organizational setting is an organization level defined according to a region of sales activity.
 3. The method of claim 1, wherein the organizational setting is a site definition defined according to a specific store location.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein the second organization setting is defined based on the output from one of a slow seller management engine, a manual input engine, or a promotional management engine.
 5. The method of claim 1, further including transmitting the price planning schedule to one or more retail locations to implement one or more price changes in the price planning schedule.
 6. The method of claim 1, further including receiving one or more price changes from a user to change one or more prices in the price schedule based on a selected organization setting.
 7. The method of claim 6, further including adjusting the price planning budget based upon the one or more price changes.
 8. A system for generating a price planning schedule, comprising: an organization setting interface configured to receive definitions for a plurality of organization settings, wherein each organization setting includes an exclusive collection of articles associated with that organization setting; and a price planning workbench configured to generate a price planning schedule based on the plurality of organization settings for articles associated with each organization setting; and wherein at least one of the plurality of organization settings is a subset of the first organization setting.
 9. The system of claim 8, wherein the organizational setting is an organization level defined according to a region of sales activity.
 10. The system of claim 8, wherein the organizational setting is a site definition defined according to a specific store location.
 11. The system of claim 8, wherein at least one of the plurality of organization settings is defined based on the output from one of a slow seller management engine, a manual input engine, or a promotional management engine.
 12. The system of claim 8, wherein the organization setting interface is further configured to receive one or more price changes to change one or more prices in the price schedule for one of the plurality of organization settings.
 13. A program product for generating a price planning schedule, comprising machine-readable program code for causing, when executed, one or more machines to perform the following method steps: receiving a default organization setting for at least one article; receiving a pricing level for the default organization setting for the at least one article; receiving at least a second organization setting for the at least one article; receiving a second pricing level for the second organization setting; and generating a price planning schedule based at least in part on the first and second organization settings for the at least one article; and wherein the second organization setting defines a subset of the first organization setting.
 14. The program product of claim 13, wherein the organizational setting is an organization level defined according to a region of sales activity.
 15. The program product of claim 13, wherein the second organization setting is defined based on the output from one of a slow seller management engine, a manual input engine, or a promotional management engine.
 16. The program product of claim 13, further including receiving one or more price changes to change one or more prices in the price schedule based on a selected organization setting.
 17. The program product of claim 16, further including adjusting the price planning budget based upon the one or more price changes. 